


In the Southern Hall Display the Kente Cloth

by Griselda_Gimpel



Category: Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Genre: Exploration, F/M, M/M, Multi, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:13:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29243400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Griselda_Gimpel/pseuds/Griselda_Gimpel
Summary: Excerpts from Sorensen's journal as he, Raphael, and Ritter decide to conduct an expedition to the far southern Halls of the House.
Relationships: Matthew Rose Sorensen | Piranesi/James Ritter, Matthew Rose Sorensen | Piranesi/Sarah Raphael | 16, Matthew Rose Sorensen | Piranesi/Sarah Raphael | 16/James Ritter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3
Collections: Black Is Beautiful 2021





	In the Southern Hall Display the Kente Cloth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chestnut_filly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chestnut_filly/gifts).



**The Expedition to the South**

**Entry for 01 March 2020**

I have decided to take a journey, to go further South in the House than I have ever been before. I have not yet decided if I wish to stay in London or return permanently to the House. James Ritter is in favor of the latter. Sarah Raphael pushes for the former. But either way, I wish to explore the House further.

Sorensen’s family – my family – is not happy about the news. In the time since I returned from the House, they have come to believe me about the existence of the House. It took Raphael and I actually taking them – briefly – to the House for them to believe, but now they do. Still, they are not happy about my plans to undertake the expedition, although they are relieved when they learn that Raphael will be accompanying me on the journey.

It is not just Raphael and me who will be going. Ritter will be coming, as well. He begged me to let him accompany us when I proposed the idea, and I have no objection. Ritter needs an opportunity to learn to survive in the House.

I cannot tell my family how long I will be gone, but I promised them that I will return. I assured them that they need not worry about me. Nevertheless, I can sense their apprehension. I wish I could sooth their concerns.

To avoid forgetting about the existence of this world, I will regularly write the following: there exists a world other than the House. It can be accessed by the South-eastern Corner of the First Vestibule. If at any point, when reading past journal entries, concepts do not appear to make sense, it is because the House is causing me to forget, and it is time for me to turn back.

In preparation for the journey, Raphael, Ritter, and myself gathered supplies. We have non-perishable provisions, chalk, fishing hooks, fishing line, a collapsible fishing rod, matches, notebooks, pens, a torch, blankets, bowls, knives, measuring tape, changes of clothes, and multivitamins. My mom has requested that we leave from my parent’s house, that they might see us off. We will set off tomorrow.

**A New Room**

**Entry for 05 March 2020**

Today we reached the Seven-Hundred-and-Sixty-Ninth Hall to the South. This was my first time visiting this room, so I am making notes of its features. The room features a single statue in the center of the room. It depicts a life-sized man taking a chisel to a block of marble that is 5.17 meters high. The man is 1.5748 meters tall, although that portion of the statue stands shorter than that, as he is depicted as hunched over. Raphael says that the man looks like Michelangelo. Ritter says that he read that Michelangelo was gay. I am fascinated. I recall that Sorensen was interested in the transgressive.

The Seven-Hundred-and-Sixty-Ninth Hall to the South contains two doors to the north. We entered the room from the more westward of the two. There is no seaweed on the statue of the sculpturer, so we mark the door we came through with the chalk. The Seven-Hundred-and-Sixth-Ninth Hall to the South contains two doors going West and one door going East. There are three doors to the South. We are going to take the center one and so mark that with the chalk, as well.

**Memories Remaining**

**Entry for 10 March 2020**

In reading past entries, I find that none of the concepts in my journals have become alien to me. In discussing this with Raphael and Ritter, we have discovered that the same is true for them. Perhaps the House, understanding that we do not wish to forget this time, has kindly left us with our memories. Or perhaps we simply have not abided in the House long enough for the memory loss to take effect. Neither Ritter nor I remember how long it took for us to forget previously.

**Gathering Seaweed**

**Entry for 11 March 2020**

Every time we reach a room with a staircase leading down, we have been detouring to the lower Halls to gather seaweed. I showed Ritter and Raphael how to lay the seaweed out to dry in the Halls that are not flooded. In this manner, we will have fuel on the way back. We have been doing this since we set out, but there were two strange occurrences today.

We had descended to the Hall beneath the One-Thousand-Three-Hundred-and-Seventy-Third Hall to the South to gather seaweed. A fish had floundered into the shallows, and I had grabbed it. In this manner, we could have fresh food for dinner and would not have to utilize the supplies we had brought.

After I had prepared in the fish, I had handed Ritter a bowl with his portion. He smiled at me when he laid his hands over mine and said thank you, but he did not take it right away. Instead, he allowed his hands to linger over mine. Then he said, “I would be lost without you.” Only then did he take the bowl. Raphael observed the occurrence. Afterward, she asked if it would be all right for her to call me Matthew. She smiled when she said it. Raphael’s smile is as nice as Ritter’s, and I found that I liked the way she said Matthew while smiling, so I told her that is fine. She said that I should call her Sarah in that case, and Ritter said that I should call him James. Future journal entries will reflect this.

**The Unexpected Flood**

**Entry for 13 March 2020**

Today was nearly a disaster, but Sarah’s quick thinking saved us. For that, I am grateful to her. We had camped for the night in the One-Thousand-Four-Hundred-and-Fiftieth Hall to the South. Because we are in unfamiliar territory, we have been alternating guard at night. The Hall we had encamped in did not show signs of recent flooding, so we had judged it safe to sleep there for the night.

How thankful that we had decided to alternate guard! Before dawn had arrived, I was awakened by Sarah shaking my shoulder and shouting “Matthew!” As the grogginess of sleep left me, I heard the roar of a rising tide. Sarah told me to gather the supplies and take the northmost door to the East and ascend the stair in that room. Then she moved to awaken James. Because of her quick thinking, we were all able to make it to safety without losing our precious supplies. Without them, we might have survived the rising tide only to be condemned to a slower, crueler death.

Sarah had been on last watch, and the new day was beginning to dawn as tide finally began to recede. Furthermore, with the adrenaline rushing through our veins, there was no chance that we would be able to return to sleep, so we stayed awake.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Sarah told me. “Oh, God, I could kiss you.” Then she blushed and said, “Forget that.” James looked angry when she said that, and I felt that he was a bit cold to her after that for the rest of the time it took for the tide to recede. Sarah is preparing breakfast now as I write this, and James is packing up the supplies. I wish I understood what was wrong.

**The Statue of the Boy with the Dictionary**

**Entry for 14 March 2020**

Today we visited the One-Thousand-Five-Hundred-and-Tenth Hall to the South, and the most curious of happenstances occurred. There were four statues in the room, three along the East wall and one upon the West wall. The northmost statue along the East wall featured a rainbow, it’s colors cleverly represented in the cold, monochromatic stone by the use of different inlaid patterns. The next statue along the East wall featured two women clasping a labrys together, their eyes locked. The southmost statue was more abstract. Neither I nor James recognized it, but Sarah identified it as the Lamda, which is a letter in the Greek alphabet.

The lone statue along the West wall showed a boy looking up something in a large book. As I went to measure its height (1.4 meters exactly) a memory came upon me. I envisioned myself as a young boy, looking up words in the dictionary. I realized immediately that this was Sorensen stirring within me, that the memory I was remembering was his memory. I feared that my realization would cause the memory to flee, like trying to recall a dream upon waking, but it instead solidified. The first word that I looked up in the dictionary in the memory was “homosexual”, which I located between “Homo sapiens” and “hon”. The next word I looked up was “bisexual”, which I found between “bisect” and “bishop”.

It was only a short memory, and I do not remember the circumstances that had prompted young Sorensen to seek out the definitions to those words. Nor do I know why the One-Thousand-Five-Hundred-and-Tenth Hall to the South sparked the recollection of that memory in me, other than the obvious that the one statue shows a young boy seeking knowledge in a book, just as I once did in my youth.

**Observations While Observing the Constellations**

**Entry for 19 March 2020**

I had intended tonight to drill James on the constellations, but something is wrong. James and Sarah speak to me, but no conversations occur between the two of them beyond cordial pleasantries. Before, I did not broach the subject because I did not know what was going on. Now, I must confess, I hesitate to act largely as an act of cowardice.

Ketterley once feared that if I knew Sarah was a woman, I would be at risk of falling in love with her. His insinuation was that this was not a concern if I thought Sarah to be a man.

There were many things Ketterley did not know about me.

**The Different Room**

**Entry for 10 April 2020**

Today we reached the Three-Thousand-Two-Hundred-and-Sixteenth Hall to the South. In this Hall, multiple amazing discoveries were made. The first of these – which leads in to the second – is that the Hall does not contain statues! Every other Hall that I had explored had been populated by statues, but in this Hall, the pattern changed.

We identified the difference immediately because the décor of the Hall was a joyful palate of color. There were eight stands in the room, four along the Westside wall and four along the Eastside wall. Draped across each of these stands were Kente cloth. Each of them contained a different dominating color, but none of them were a single color, as is the way with Kente cloth.

“What are these?” James asked.

“Kente cloth,” I explained excitedly. “They originate in Ghana. They’re hand-woven from cotton and silk in various patterns of bright colors. I read about them in the journals that Sor- that I wrote before I was first brought to the House. I actually own an outfit of Kente cloth; my journals say that I got it when visiting my grandparents during summer break during my college days.” I was bouncing back and forth on the balls of my heels.

“Why Kente cloth?” Sarah wondered.

I frowned as I thought about it. “Why statues?” I pointed out. I ran my tongue behind the back of my teeth, teasing out the thought. “Arne-Sayles believes the House was made by knowledge exiting from the other world, and that the shape of the House is from the shape of the knowledge that left.”

“But knowledge doesn’t just exit from the West,” Sarah and James said simultaneously. There was a pause after that, in which the tension stretched like a balloon about to pop. The silence should have been filled with the easy laughter at the happenstance of lockstep phrasing, but there were words that needed to be said first, and I decided that it was time that I stopped being a coward.

“Homosexuality is illegal in Ghana,” I said in a careful, conversational tone, “but it wasn’t always that way. It was outlawed in the 1860’s. So, it’s a relic of British colonialism.” I know this because Sorensen wrote this in his journal detailing his visit to Ghana.

“You’re gay,” Sarah said flatly, looking from James to myself.

“Homosexual,” I recited, “a person who is sexually attracted to people of their own sex.” Then I shook my head. “No, I am not.” I saw James open his mouth to protest, and I quickly cut him off. “I’m bisexual - a person who is sexually attracted not exclusively to people of one particular gender. Also, a flower having both stamens and pistils, but I am not a flower and therefore not that sort of bisexual.”

“Oh,” Sarah and James said together, and this time a nervous chuckle followed.

“You are both very attractive people,” I said.

It was James who understood first. “You’re asking us to share?”

“Can you?” I asked him and Sarah.

Sarah looked away, at the floor. “I’ve never been a relationship with multiple partners before. I can’t promise that I won’t make a right mess of things.”

“I’m told that I have,” James said, “but I don’t remember. I haven’t dated much since I was first taken away from here. How could I share my life with anyone I couldn’t share this with?” He waved his arm expansively, to encompass not only the room we stood in but the whole entirety of the House.

“My journals speak of past relationships, but I also do not remember. I think we are all equally likely to fuck things up. I am willing to try if you two are.”

Sarah nodded and then turned to James. “Sorry I’ve been cold to you.”

“Same,” James said.

“I’m game for a three-way relationship if you are,” Sarah said.

“I am,” James agreed.

We embraced then, the three of us. Then we made love on the floor of the Three-Thousand-Two-Hundred-and-Sixteenth Hall to the South. Now, cleaned and ready to rest for the night, I am writing this journal entry while Sarah and James sleep. I wonder, if knowledge seeps into the House from multiple points, if that means that there are multiple entrances and exits in the House. Now that the décor of the House has changed, I am eager to test my hypothesis. We’ll press forward again in the morning and discover together what other wonders the House has in store for us.


End file.
